( Chapter Twelve ) — Ruby Fury

           The concrete was a strange change beneath his feet, stuttering his rhythm before his legs swung on. His heels barely kissed the ground, and he felt no impact as he flew over the road and into Nevada.

He had run the length of Oregon, faster than his travel from Denali to Forks. The Cullen house had been grey and abandoned, doors shut tightly and Jamie had to let himself in. There had been a rush, a panic in the house and as he walked quickly around, Jamie called out. There was no reply and after a glancing search around the rooms, Jamie found himself standing in Carlisle's office.

He had spun on his spot for a moment, unsure of why he was there before fixing his eyes upon the desk. It was immaculate but the chair was tilted in a way of carelessness, as if it hadn't been corrected and put in its proper place. Jamie stepped around the desk and tucked it back where it should be. He kept his hands on the chair for a long time, feeling the leather beneath his fingertips and leaned heavily over it.

He wondered if Carlisle paced, thinking how he had managed to indent himself so firmly upon the room if not. Then Jamie thought of the Carlisle he had seen in the field, planted firmly in front the human, shielding her from harm as if he wasn't a instrument of death himself. He had been balanced, so still that he seemed immovable in his protection. It felt as if he too was in the study then; for a man to fill a space even in his absence made Jamie feel too conscious of just air and shadows.

It had been the same with the chair in his room in Denali, so cold and blank without Carlisle but still his chair. Jamie realised that it had been more himself than a lingering presence that had kept it as Carlisle's, seeing no possible other in his place. He realised it and that frightened him beyond anything he had ever known.

He kept that fear because it fed him, fed his power, and he manipulated it into something more terrible, a fear of loss. A terror felt so deep within him because he had such little left to lose. His aunt, gone long before Susanna but both leaving him equally empty. His life, selfish but he craved it again more than anything he had ever known. Now there was the prospect of a family, large and welcoming with the promise of understanding, and Carlisle; Carlisle who being without made even a chair seem like a ghost.

So Jamie had held onto that fear of loss and loneliness and he had imagined blood, his throat aching painfully. He envisioned the mousy haired girl and how much he wanted her, running helplessly and warm. It was a pull, a magnet with a searching force, knotted at the end of every link he had ever unconsciously made and swinging until it connected with a shock to the mind of the other he sought.

He was no longer in the study but running again, this time far from snow and woodland and over sand. There was an intended place to be, playful in his urgency as he jumped over sun-warmed rock. It was sunrise and he could feel the budding heat of the ground on his bare soles. Then like a lethargic click into place, Arizona - it was where he was racing to. Phoenix, a city of low, beige houses so clear in his mind and without really thinking, Jamie knew exactly where to go amongst them.

It was a torch of knowledge that had passed from one mind to another, and now Jamie ran over the same rocks. He was running beside the beginning sunset, half a day too slow with his throat like sandpaper. He could smell people in intervals, clenching his fists and bolting on with only his fury and desperation not be alone, only his will against the thirst

At first Jamie had thought he was wrong, the place too odd, too sunny for someone of their kind to be sprinting to. He thought that it had been a ruse, but he knew that he had never been this close to the tail of the monster. So close, almost close enough to reach out and grab.

And so he ran on, Carlisle's ghostly study behind and something equally as terrible in front.

There was a time when Carlisle had been lonely. It was an age passed now, but he remembered when every step of his had been weighted. 

It was the memory of those years that kept one foot in front of the other now, running forward to defend the family he had gathered. Edward was long ahead of them, beating onwards with the desperation of a man trying to outrun death. Jasper was ahead too, fuelled by Alice's panic and as she swept through the alleyways of Phoenix beside Carlisle, he could feel the guilt and frustration atop her tiny shoulders.

She had called him, stricken like she had seen the end of the world and she had barely gotten the words out before Edward was tearing off into the trees. Carlisle and Emmett had all followed close behind him, meeting Alice and Jasper in Arizona. They were all panicked, heads down and keeping tightly together as they raced to protect their own.

Esme and Rosalie had stayed in the heart of Forks, around Charlie in a constant perimeter, cautious of the sadism of who they faced. And Jamie - Jamie, who seemed a world away but was safe - was far from being hurt again. Carlisle was horrified finding him on the roadside that night, carrying him home with a final, grieving glance to the woman laying dead in the bushes. It was more fire beneath his feet now, to stop the same from happening to Bella, to keep the pain of that away from her, from his son. Carlisle knew better than any, that even an immortal life could not heal such wounds.

He heard the fight before they reached the studio. The room smelt of blood. The mirrors had been smashed, all of them catching misshapen reflections of themselves at every turn. Edward had James by the throat, snarling and savage and Bella was crying out in pain.

It was her sound that brought Edward back to himself, more than Carlisle's words ever could and as Jasper and Emmett took James by the shoulders, Carlisle was suddenly kneeling beside her with Edward cradling her head, Alice on her other side. He looked at her leg and pressed his hands to it to try and hold the blood flow. "She's losing too much blood. Watch out for her leg, it's broken."

He saw how she was curled and took a red soaked hand and gently felt her side. "Some ribs too, I think."

Edward was enraged, teeth bared and shivering over Bella. Behind them the heat of a fire started and James turned wild. Carlisle kept one eye on the brawl as Emmett held the hunter, Jasper kindling the flames. He kept his hands on Bella's leg, keeping it still and watching as blood spilled between his fingers.

"My hand is burning!" she screamed and Edward called out to him in alarm.

"He bit her," Carlisle said, and he was suddenly back on that roadside and it was Jamie whose blood was on his hands. Alice wiped the tears from Bella's eyes and looked at her brother. "Edward, you have to do it."

Edward roared but it was lost to the sudden snarls behind them. In a clever turn, James managed to kick Jasper away, clawing and biting at Emmett as Jasper recovered from the stun. His teeth caught Emmett's neck and his thumb found an eye, in shock and pain he was released and James whirled fiercely.

Alice was on her feet, and Edward crouched over Bella as she screamed and writhed beneath Carlisle's hands. But before they could launch at one another, something struck them all still.

A terrible noise. Bass and feral, any louder and it would have shaken the ground beneath them. They all barely caught a glimpse of Jamie before he was barrelling into James, and what they saw of him was so inhumanly dreadful, so monstrous that they could not look away. His eyes were black, blown wide and enraged and James couldn't keep his footing against the sudden weight. They fell together, bringing up floorboards as they rolled and spat.

James's arm had been ripped off at the elbow, flung away and even Emmett and Jasper couldn't get near to them as Jamie took his teeth to the hard flesh of his throat. James yelled out, beating at Jamie with his only fist and they could all hear the cracks at every blow. But Jamie was too strong, absolutely maddened. He was ripping and tearing at the body beneath him until James could not even scream out.

He chest had been opened, as had his stomach and his head was one blow from detaching from his shoulders. It was terrible, it was ruthless and cruel and still those awful, savage sounds thundered from Jamie.

And then there was Carlisle's voice rising above it all, distraught, desperate and never like he had sounded before.

"Stop him! God, stop him!"